In the last few years or so, the phrase “Getting closer to God” was coined, and it has only gained popularity since. Christians use it to describe what they are going to try to accomplish, or what has happened. Somehow they are going to “Get closer the God” at an event, on a trip, or through Bible study and prayer. While these people may mean well, there is a serious problem with this phrase. Now you may be saying, “Whoa, where do you come off saying there is something wrong with getting closer to God?” Hold your horses, and just hear me out on this one, trust me its not what you think.
Problem #1
The phrase says that we are away from God, so the way to fix that is to get closer. But nothing could be farther from the truth, as a born again Christian, the Holy Spirit (God) indwells you. You can’t get much closer then that, and unless you believe you can lose your salvation (which the scriptures clearly say you can not VS. ), than there is no way you can get away from God, so then there is no way you can get any closer while on this earth. I think rather the right phrase to be used here would be “Realizing how close God is and what he is like.” The relationship you have with God has to be maintained the same way any relationship must be, with time. And what happened if say you spend two hours a day with your best friend, then for one reason or another you stop seeing each other for a few years, what has happened to the relationship? It kind of disappears, or at the very least becomes weaker. That is exactly what happens with us and God, if we stop spending time with him, or have never really spent time with him, He seams far away, when really all that has happened is the line of communication has been cut. If we don’t spend time with Him, then how can we know him? Or know how close his is to us and how much he cares for us.
Problem #2
The Phrase makes it sound like we can fix our problem, it sounds as though we are the ones doing the moving, getting “closer” to God, its something we can do. When in truth, we couldn’t get any closer or farther away from God even if we wanted to, for one thing, we don’t even know where he is or what direction to go. God is infinite, we are not, the only reason we even know he exists is because he wants us to know. Point being, its not us who has to make the move, its God.
Instead of saying that we want to get closer to God, we should be asking God to reveal himself to us, because he is already close, really close, we just can’t see him.
I have used this phrase in the past and will most defiantly use it is the future, all I ask is that every time you use this phrase that you keep in mind what you are saying, what it means and what you really mean. You are just using this phrase for lack of a better one; maybe its time we invent one.
